I went to bed a little after midnight and had a hard time getting to sleep. When I went to bed, George Allen still had the lead, but Jim Webb was closing every time new numbers were reported. I woke up at five AM and it felt just like Christmas Morning. What would be under the tree? I rushed (quietly) down the stairs, checked the feed reader, and what did I see? Presents! Webb up by an almost recount-proof eight thousand votes, McCaskill winning in Missouri and Tester teasingly close in Montana. The Democrats took the House, and are a recount (or two) away from taking the Senate. Merry Christmas, America!

It’s 11:30PM on election night, and I’m about to go to bed because I just can’t take any more. Right now, I’m feeling pretty smart. Let’s review my predictions from yesterday:

1. A recount in Virginia’s Senate race: Right now, with Webb inching up every time they report numbers, Allen leads by only 7,000 votes, which pretty much guarantees a recount by whoever comes out behind when the first count is done. Update: Looks like there isn’t going to be a recount after all, but it was close.
2. Cardin beats Steele: Yup, easy
3. Wolf beats Feder: Yep
4. The stupid marriage amendment: Yep, it passed. I’m disappointed, but not surprised. Never overestimate Evangelicals. They’ll disappoint you every time.
5. Dems take house with twenty-five seats: We haven’t seen much from out west and the Democrats have already taken the fifteen seats they need. I expect at least ten more.
6. Senate at 50-50: Too close to tell. Who knows? Update: Wrong! Hooray!! With Allen conceding some time today (Thursday 11/9), the Democrats will have a 51-49 majority in the Senate.\
   Of course, I’ll update this as we know things for sure, but right now, I’m feeling pretty smart.

I want you to imagine me saying this in my most condescending voice. I don’t think it will be that hard for most you:\
It is ok to be a Republican. Really, it is. You want the dream of lower taxes, individuals fending for themselves, and the government out of your lives except for your bedroom? That’s cool. Rock on with your Republican self.\
But it is not OK to support President Bush. I mean, I am not going to go to your house and attack you or anything. But after all of the information about everything since 9/11 has come out, it just boggles my mind that people would still support him. I understand supporting The Office of the President, but the man himself has been shown to be both incompetent and duplicitous.

God is sad because you didn’t vote yet.\
GO VOTE!

Jen and I took the kids to our lovely voting location this morning (there’s something kind of cool about voting in a farming museum), and it was actually pretty crowded! We had to wait in line for about ten minutes, which is about what we had to do for the Presidential election in 2004. Our little precinct is pretty “blue” when compared to the rest of the Virginia (we’re the only precinct that went for both Kerry and Socas in 2004), so I hate to use my experience as indicative, but the Dems were handing out more sample ballots and we had a lot more poll workers there than the other side. We also had way more signs for Judy Feder and Jim Webb than Wolf or Allen, which is a good sign.\
The kids had a lot of fun and the old guy handing out “I Voted” stickers let Brian take several. The boy looks like he votes in Chicago or something. Then, because they’re going to hang out with my mom, we stopped by our table and picked up a couple Webb stickers.\
I’m trying not to think about the results too much because we won’t know anything until late anyway, and I have work to do. Plus, it’s hard to type with my fingers crossed.\
If you’d like to keep up with the doings all day, here are my faves:

• Talking Points Memo
• Daily Kos
• Salon’s War Room
• Atrios

I voted!\
Did you?

Waldo asked for predictions but apparently, my network is on some sort of blacklist and I can’t post a comment. So, here are my predictions for tomorrow, in no particular order:

• Jim Webb will beat George Allen, but it’ll be close enough that there will be a recount.
• Cardin will beat Steele easily, like 10-15 points easily up there in Maryland.
• Frank Wolf will trounce Judy Feder, if only because no one knows who she is. I’ve asked, and even some left-leaning folks I know have no idea who she is.
• I think ballot issue number one (the stupid “marriage defense” amendment) will pass because people didn’t take the time to read the damn thing. It’s just plain bad law. Gay marriage is already illegal in Virginia, people. You’re not making it any safer, because eventually, the Supreme Court (of the US, not VA) will rule on it, and you’ll have to live with it anyway. No vague threat of “liberal judges” will actually make a difference in the long run.
• The Democrats will take the house with a 25 seat gain.
• The Senate will end up 50-50 somehow. I’m not exactly sure which one of the races won’t go the Dems way, but something’s going to happent to make it 50-50. I hope for a 6 or 7 seat gain for our side, but I don’t think it’ll happen.\
  I’m sad about the last one, and I hope I’m wrong. I just don’t know if the Democrats have that much momentum, and after hearing about all the dirty tricks with robocalls and some really horrible flyers in the past couple days, I’m even less sure. We’ll see. Tomorrow’s the day, kids, so don’t forget to vote. Really.